


Three thousand

by SugarcoatedBrain



Category: Avengers: Endgame Spoilers - Fandom, Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Adorable Morgan Stark (Marvel Cinematic Universe), Avengers: Endgame (Movie), Avengers: Endgame (Movie) Spoilers, Big brother!Peter, Cute Morgan Stark (Marvel Cinematic Universe), Kid Morgan Stark (Marvel Cinematic Universe), Peter Parker Needs a Hug, Post-Avengers: Endgame (Movie), Precious Morgan Stark (Marvel Cinematic Universe), Precious Peter Parker
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-12
Updated: 2019-08-17
Packaged: 2020-03-01 12:02:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 11,649
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18799951
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SugarcoatedBrain/pseuds/SugarcoatedBrain
Summary: "Surely, there was no world in which Peter Parker was supposed to live without Iron Man."Takes place right after the final battle in Avengers: Endgame.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I'm sorry in advance for the tears I may cause with this. I've been trying to figure out what happened of Peter after that horrible moment and this is what I came up with.

The dust had settled a couple of days prior. The fight had been fought, aliens had been killed and monsters had vanished. The compound was a giant warzone, with bodies of unfortunate soldiers to be collected and the air smelled like burned dirt. In the wake of the final battle, the sun had hidden behind the clouds of dust and other dirt particles that had flown in the air while they were fighting. The majority of the army was seen celebrating the end of a dark era. The Avengers, though, were left to weep.

To Peter, the sight of his mentor barely alive had been a shock. Rhodey had left him a couple of seconds with him, like he knew what it meant to him, what Tony meant to him. Surely, there was no world in which Peter Parker was supposed to live without Iron Man. When he first got his Iron Man helmet, a decade or so ago, he was the happiest kid of the block. His uncle had gifted him the toy for his birthday, in a desperate attempt to make him cling to a hero, when he no longer had his own in his life. That day, Ben had become the closest thing to a dad that he could have and even then, he had to grieve him as well. When Peter met Tony, he was a lost kid with powers that he barely understood and could handle. Tony made him the suit. He brought him in this team. He made sure to sweep his mistakes under a carpet and mentored him to become the best Spider-Man he could be. By doing so, Peter noticed his own growth, his personal growth and the man that he was just starting to become. When Peter met Tony, all he could think about was how, on a night out with his uncle and aunt, he crossed path with Iron Man and how the superhero pretended that he had saved the day. Now, Peter really could and Tony knew it, let him do so and he felt useful. When Peter met Tony, the stark difference between the armor and the guy was so important that it took him a few days to adjust: Tony wasn’t just a megalomaniac billionaire with dozens of armors. He was a nice guy, with strong parental issues and a vision of the world that he wanted to achieve. Fuck those who didn’t believe in it, he’d prove them wrong. Peter was impressed, being a fifteen year-old kid who had no idea what he wanted to do when he’d be grown. Spider-Man wasn’t really a career path he could take, more like a side job, and he wouldn’t live of it. Sure, he could join the Avengers and become a full time superhero, but he wasn’t sure that it was what he wanted to pursue. He had friends, he had Aunt May, he had a lot of things left to discover in this world and being stuck at the compound wouldn’t exactly be the top option if he wanted to get life experiences.

Some days, when Peter was supposed to be interning at Stark Industries, he’d get a text from Happy Hogan, letting him know that he was waited upon at the Stark facility. He’d usually find him in the lobby, playing Candy Crush on his phone, trying to beat Rhodey’s top scores and failing miserably. Happy would grumble a hasty hello, walk straight to the elevator and make him climb on it as well. He’d press the top button and they’d end up at the offices. Most of the time, Peter would raise a hand and Happy would silently put his phone in his palm, so the teen could unblock the level he was stuck on. Sometimes, Peter would work with Mrs. Potts, at her office. Pepper would show him how to run a multi-billions company and how a choice could induce a lot of other possibilities. She’d explain a bit of economics, how to fill in some forms and had started to show him how to fill out his taxes, for later purposes. She’d take him, occasionally, on press conferences, where he’d sit among the journalists and listen to everything. Most of the time, though, he’d end up a few floors lower and would meet with his mentor, tinkering on an armor or whatever he wanted to work on that day. Peter learned how to fix a toaster with Tony. He also learned how to code in CSS. He also hacked SHIELD with Tony, just for fun and to piss off Nick Fury. With Tony, they’d joke around and change some important shit on webpages such as the White House’s where, for a couple of hours, it said that the president of the United States of America was an old sprinkled popsicle. Usually, Tony would eat dried berries straight out of the pack, letting him steal some by pretending he didn’t see his webs sneaking into the pack to grab a few. Sometimes, Tony would declare it was pancakes day or whatever else and they’d eat in his workshop, putting crumbs all over his armors and not caring a damn bit about it. Tony became the closest thing he had to a father figure quite easily. He was there to provide advices but he also would yell at him whenever he’d let a light on in the workshop. He’d send gifts for his birthdays and he’d also be there for important shit, such as career day at Midtown High. At least once every three months, Pepper would invite him and May to dinner at the Stark house and they’d discuss about Peter’s future, possibly at Stark Industries. When May discovered the truth about the internship, she was pissed. To know that Peter was that guy in tights that she saw swinging around in town and catching bad guys was enough to send her blood pressure through the roof but discussing about it with Pepper comforted May and to know that Tony would always keep an eye on him was reassuring. Those dinners were also a way to remind May that Tony cared enough to do whatever it’d take to keep Peter safe.

Peter just never imagined that it meant sacrificing himself.

When Captain America came in to carry Tony’s body, Peter had broken down in incontrollable sobs, making everyone turn to him. Sure enough, they all had forgotten that he was barely eighteen and in fact, still a kid. He had fought so much during the last hour or so, swinging around and carrying Thanos’ gauntlet to Captain Marvel that they’d all assume the last five years had made him older. But Peter was still a kid, who just watched his worst nightmare happen. For the third time.

Peter was a complete mess, being taken care of by Wanda. Peter had met her once already, at the airport in Germany, but that was close to the only interaction he ever had with her, and it wasn’t even positive as they both were on opposite teams. They crossed paths here and there, for a couple of minutes, at the Avengers’ base whenever Tony would bring him there for whatever, but all they exchanged would be casual hi’s and sometimes, a “how are you?”. Wanda was usually not very comfortable around Tony and since Peter was shadowing him most of the time, he wasn’t her favorite person to be around. Nonetheless, when she saw him crumble on the ground, next to Tony’s now dead body, all she could do was kneel next to him and use her telekinesis to break him out of the iron suit, as gently as she could to not damage it. She had found a switch and the suit had retracted into itself on his back, but all it got her was Peter retreating into a fetal position, knees to his chest and face to his calves. He was sweating and shaking like a leaf, so she put a gentle hand on his shoulder and managed to make him sit by using just a little bit of magic enough. She hid his face in the crook of her neck when Steve carried Tony away, so he wouldn’t see his arms limping at each side of Steve’s chest and then, she let him in the capable hands of Steve’s best friend, Bucky. Bucky was strong enough to support the teen, both physically and emotionally. It wasn’t the first time he’d go through such traumatic events. With a softness he thought he had forgot by now, he wrapped his valid arm around the teen’s waist and marched him out of the battlefield, carrying the sobbing boy away from all the destruction that just happened. Bucky knew when to escape the rage and the despair, he knew how to slip away without being seen. He knew how to treat wounds from the fights and how to pretend like nothing happened. In more ways than he could understand, Bucky turned into a big brother for the little superhero on his side. If Peter was still a mess, Bucky promised himself that he’d do his best to soothe him, just a little.

Soon enough, Bucky had put Peter in a car that was miraculously still working, despite the amount of dirt and dust that it had been collecting in five years. With an expertise he wished he never had, he jammed the engine on and drove him to his hideout place in Brooklyn where he made sure that his black eye was treated and that the diverse cuts and bruises were attended. When he was sure that Peter was physically okay, he dropped him in Queens, where May was anxiously waiting out for him. For the first time in years, Peter slept in her bed that night, clinging to her like he did all those years ago, when all he wanted was his mom and dad.

To learn that Peter was now five years behind half of the world was another cut to the flesh. As if losing Tony wasn’t enough, he had to come to terms with the world moving on from them all and then reaccepting them back. The technology had slowed down a little, Peter was a bit surprised to see that his phone didn’t need an update and that it still worked perfectly. As he took a glance around his room, his screen lit up with hundreds of texts from his friends, asking if he was okay, if he was back, if he needed anything. Ned, though, knew better and called him a few hours later, sobbing about how he didn’t know that five years had gone on, letting Peter understand that Ned had been dusted as well. Then Ned asked about the battle, about how he was, about the heroes he met and Peter broke down, letting his best friend learn that Iron Man was no longer here. Ned asked if he wanted company, if he _needed_ a friend, but Peter declined the offer, saying he wanted to go back to the compound and see what he could do to help. He didn’t tell May where he was going. He just informed her that he was leaving and he’d be home in the evening. May didn’t need to hear it to know that the Avengers GQ was his destination. He needed to be there, not just because he had responsibilities now but also because Tony was all he knew back when he first got his powers and he was the only person keeping him sane enough. In a very masochistic way, Peter needed to go back where it all happened, so he could carry on with Tony’s work.

The sky had cleared up, like it knew that the darkness was now over. In the light of day, without the alien ships blocking the sun, the scene was even more disastrous. Tony would flip if he could see this. He had spent millions building that base and to see it now in grumbles was enough to make Peter tear up. Bodies of unfortunate soldiers had been taken away and the ground was now pure dirt, mixed with dried blood. Different types of them, actually. Alien’s blood; blue and thick and almost slimy, while the red one was now turning into brown. The smell was horrendous as well: burnt earth and dead flesh was not the scented candle he’d choose in a supermarket. The precious lawn that was maintained at least once a week was a catastrophe and the building that used to house the Avengers was now everted, with barely a quarter still standing.

“This is bad, isn’t it?”

Peter jumped out, pushing a hand on his chest, trying to slow down his heart. He didn’t know he wasn’t the only one, though he suspected he would meet the guy here.

“It’s a nightmare”, Peter confirmed.

“I wish you didn’t have to see it. Tony wouldn’t have wanted that for you.”

“I know.”

Steve nodded, sadly. Pushing his hands in his pockets, he took a glance at the panorama ahead of him. There was nothing that they could do, this was way beyond their capacity but still, they were here, wishing they could do something. Wishing they could bring back at least the compound back to its previous glory. It felt like they owed him at least that. He wasn’t here anymore but he could always have this legacy of the Avengers facility in the north of the state.

“Come on, Queens. Let’s not sit on our asses, it’ll take forever to make it what it once was if we wait around.”

For five hours, Steve and Peter went through the rubbles to sort out what could be saved. With both of their super strength, it was easier. What could be put back in the far wing that had been saved by the annihilation had been stored there, Peter swinging back and forth with what Steve could give him. When the sun started to get low, they sat on the pile of rubbles and enjoyed a beer that Steve had pushed into Peter’s hands.

“I’m not twenty-one”, Peter had declined.

“I wasn’t either when I got my first one and I turned out all right.”

“You turned out _worthy_ , actually”, Peter shrugged.

“Son, it shocked me too”, Steve scoffed.

“How was it?”

“Like electricity running straight through my veins. I understand why Thor likes it that much.”

“He’s had a bit of a rough time, Mr. Thor, right?”

“The last five years have been a trial for us all. Thor lost his brother for the third time and I guess he realized that this time, it was final.”

When Steve dropped Peter back in Queens, the teen was limping and slurring. The only beer that he had was enough to make him tipsy and thank God, May understood. Also, Steve carrying an almost asleep Peter was enough to melt her heart, for whatever reason.

Works had started the day after that at the Avengers GQ. While the Damage Control teams prepared to clear up the rubbles, the Avengers prepared to say goodbye to Tony. Peter was wearing a suit that Tony had made tailored for him a while ago and May was gonna be there as well. But it still was too soon when you were an eighteen year-old who had lost five years on Earth. All morning, Peter had acted almost robotic, tying his shoes numbly and letting May take care of his tie. He had buttoned his shirt and combed his hair, trying to forget why he was doing it. The drive to the address that Pepper had sent him had been so long that even May didn’t know what to say and Peter had spent the most of it sleeping against the window on his right side. When they arrived, May thought her GPS had had a malfunction, because there was no way on Earth that Pepper had sent them to that cabin. But the number of cars there was a proof that there had been no mistake. Confused, Peter walked up the four steps to arrive at the door and knocked, waiting patiently for someone to open to them. If actually nobody did, he wouldn’t be mad. He wasn’t sure he’d be able to go through another funeral. But sure enough, Happy opened the door, letting Peter and May enter the house.

In a way, Peter immediately knew that this was Tony’s house. Despite the wood everywhere and the severe lack of glam, the disposition of the furniture and the way it was decorated was screaming “Tony and Pepper” at him. May had baked a cake, even though she knew how bad Tony disliked her cooking, but still, she thought it was the perfect get away gesture that she could offer him. He liked to tease her endlessly about it and she’d pretend to be butthurt when really, they both knew she was terrible in the kitchen. Tony would have enjoyed the joke, she thought. Peter couldn’t find the heart to be amused, that day.

But as he caught sight of Pepper, welcoming some of the most powerful beings on Earth in her stupidly humble home, Peter got attacked by a small creature who latched onto his legs and grabbed his waist tightly. Confused beyond words, Peter looked down and saw a head full of brown hair. There were a million of questions tumbling around his skull but as soon as the head turned up to him, they all vanished away. Those eyes.. Peter could have sworn they were previously attached to his mentor. But here they were, on the round face of a barely five year-old, who was clinging to him for God knows the reason.

“Hello”, Peter croaked out.

“Hi Peter”, the little girl greeted. “I’m glad to finally meet you.”

“How do you know me?” Peter questioned.

“My dad told me all of your stories together. Come with me, I’ll show you.”

Without another word, the little kid dragged him by the hand to the kitchen, where the island was flooding with the diverse cooking and baking that the guests had brought to relieve Pepper of it. Peter didn’t have time to prevent her to do so but the girl climbed onto the counter and grabbed a frame behind different grinders and spices, managing to jump back on the floor before showing him her treasure.

In her little hands, she held a picture of Peter and Tony.

Tony had a kid. Tony had made a small human being. Peter knew, as soon as her eyes met his, but still, to see her kind-of-confirmation was making him weak. Tony was gone and he thought he had lost an important person of his life, but here she was, having just lost her _dad._ That was on a whole other level and he thought it was hard for him?

“Hey Queens.”

Peter’s head turned up on the left, where Steve was standing, hands deep in the pockets of his suit.

“I see you’ve met Morgan”, he smiled. “How are you sweetheart?”

Morgan didn’t answer much. Instead, she launched herself at the super soldier and climbed in his arms, where he sat her on his hip and kissed her forehead.

“There’s a lot you’ve missed. But don’t worry, this is the biggest surprise he could have for you.”

Peter nodded, silently. There would be a time for questions later, but for now on, it wasn’t the right time. So he let Steve open the way and walked around the cabin where he could see diverse trinkets that Tony accumulated along the years: there was a drawing framed on the wall that could only be Morgan’s work, and there also was a space where he could work on some tech stuff if he wanted. There was a big living room with a nice TV, and stored underneath was a serious collection of Peppa Pig’s DVDs. The room was scattered with toys that Pepper didn’t have the courage to put away, so Peter grabbed a few plush toys and put them back in the toys box. When he opened the box, though, all he found was figurines of several superheroes and in the mess that it was, he found a Spider-Man toy. The thing was in bad shape, compared to the Hulk one. A hand had been broken and glued back and the paint was chipped at several places. Clearly, the toy had been used a lot and it warmed his heart a little bit. He didn’t even have a clue that they made toys of him, but Morgan playing with it was a proof that Tony really did speak about him with her.

When Peter crossed Pepper’s path, he instantly understood that she felt bad for not telling him sooner about Morgan. She could have sent him a text, she could have called him to give him a heads up, but she forgot, amongst her grieving, taking care of the funerals and of Morgan, as well as Damage Control. She had been busy and she didn’t stop one second to think about it. There was so much to think about already..

 

“I should have told you, sorry Peter”, Pepper apologized.

“Don’t worry about it. She’s great”, Peter softly replied. “She showed me the picture of me and Tony.”

“He was always volunteering to be on dishes duty, even though he’d flood the kitchen with soap and water. So he put the picture there, to keep you around, I guess.”

 

Peter’s eyes welled up with tears. His heart was completely and utterly in pieces by now, his chest was constricting around his lungs and he could swear that his knees were hurting. Nothing was right. Nothing should be. They were letting Tony go, for God’s sake. He should be here, running around with Morgan, enjoying his daughter to the max capacity. And here they were, around him for the last time, because he really was the heart of the Avengers team.

 

“Don’t cry, kid. Tony would hate to see you cry.”

“I’m not crying.”

“Don’t you dare tell me it’s just allergies, Peter.”

“Okay”, he sniffed.

 

The ceremony was beautiful, of course. Nothing like the extravagance that Tony was used to, back when Peter got dusted. In five years, he had time to think about his way of life, about his choices, about the things he wanted from Life and what he had to do to get them. The cabin, the lack of a personal office, the lake.. Everything screamed that Tony went back to basics. Except, as always, Tony went to the extreme basics. There was nothing he could do with chill, that guy. Pepper had read a bit of a text that Tony loved a lot. Rhodey talked about his best friend, about how much of a pain in his ass he was but how much he loved him. Happy spoke highly of his boss who never really felt like his boss, but more like a friend. Steve spoke about the honor it had been to fight alongside him. Bruce or Hulk or whatever he was choosing to be called as, told them all about the work they were doing together and how Tony never really understood how much of a genius he really was. He liked to pretend that he was really smart, he was very self-deprecating, but he truly was a genius. They asked if Peter wanted to say a few words but Peter shook his head, uncomfortable and too emotional to talk to an audience. They all understood. 

Pepper had found back the old reactor that she had given Tony as a gift and a proof that he now had a heart. They had put it in the center of a beautiful flower wreath and they let it float, with Morgan, on the surface of the lake. It was the best farewell gesture they could have done. And Morgan didn’t cry once, which was impressive for such a young girl. There was no doubt that she understood what was going on, she seemed to be really smart as well, like both her parents, but maybe the whole thing wasn’t quite real to her yet. It had happened just a couple of days ago, maybe she didn’t really have enough time to truly miss him yet.

 

The whole team was there. From Wakandan royalty to the Guardians of the Galaxy, there wasn’t a team member that was missing, apart from Black Widow, who Peter had learned had sacrificed herself as well. Clint was there with his whole family, the ceremony obviously a double pain for him. Peter didn’t know him much, he only met him once in Germany and he wasn’t even on the same team as he was. Still, he went to Clint, put his hand on his shoulder and nodded to him, letting him understand that he was sorry for Natasha’s loss. Clint nodded as well, pushing him into a quick hug and muttering a small “I’m glad you’re back, kid”. There was no other word they could have told each other. Natasha knew how much Peter meant to Tony, she had told him about it, back when they were trying to figure the whole stones mess. Clint truly was relieved to know that he was back, but it didn’t make the grieving very easier.

Peter met Harley too. They had met Tony at quite the same time, actually, but Harley was a bit older and he barely saw Tony anymore. Still, they were in touch occasionally, Tony writing him a letter of recommendation for college, making him score a place at MIT easily. Tony also had paid for his whole tuition and textbooks, as well as a small condo that Harley shared with two roommates that Tony had chosen after reading some applications. He provided them with free Internet and had gifted them amazing laptops to work as easily as possible, so in a way, Harley really did owe him a lot. It was nice to hear about Tony’s hidden good actions, as Harley had promised to never tell the press about it and Tony was generally very secretive about his generosity. Harley and him shared a lot about their mentor that day, exchanging stories from either the Stark facility or the emails they sent each other. It was nice, in a way, to have someone who understood exactly what you meant. They exchanged numbers, promising to stay in contact and then, Peter was grabbed by Pepper, who had just gone through the mandatory hand-shaking process of people paying their respect.

 

“I found out that Tony had something for you, in case of a dark day”, Pepper tried to explain, her voice tied in her throat. “He wanted me to give it to you.”

 

Peter’s first reflex was to nod again, because he wasn’t sure if his voice was even working at this point. Pepper’s hand was raised to him, silently asking him to follow her and so that’s what he did. They went back to the living room where Pepper made him sit at his desk and she activated the light board, where she typed in a series of numbers, to make a small drawer open.

 

“Morgan learned how to read pretty fast. He didn’t want her to stumble onto it”, Pepper let him know.

 

In her hands sat a white envelope with his name handwritten on it. He knew by now how to recognize Tony’s writing and his heart tightened again in his chest.

A few days ago, Tony was knighting him an Avenger. They went to space together and they fought alongside other heroes. And then Thanos snapped his fingers, making Peter disappear for a bit. A few moments after that, he was back, learning it had been five years and that Tony needed him. He lost him barely two hours later. This was a lot to process and a lot to handle. But still, he was holding Tony’s latest words to him and he couldn’t wait to have just a little bit more of him again, so he tore the paper up and took the thick stack of paper sheets out of it, eager to know what Tony had to tell him.

 

> _Peter,_
> 
> _If you read this, then something has happened. I’m not gonna pretend like I’m not scared of death, because, ultimately, we’re all scared of the unknown, but there’s something you need to know. I lived a mostly happy life. I got everything I ever desired and more. I lead a successful life and sure there must have been a lot of things left for me to try, but I’m happy with what I got to experience._
> 
> _Don’t cry for me. I’m an old guy who used to sneeze into Benjamins. There’s no time for you to cry. The world is yours to explore, to discover, to see. But it’s also yours to protect, now._
> 
> _The suits are yours, no conditions. Happy will keep an eye on you and on your training. You’re not free to go just yet. You have a room at the Avengers’ GQ is you ever want it. Ask Rhodey, he’ll show you the way to it. There’s also a bank account in your name that I put some savings on, for dark days. Pepper taught you how to handle it, I’m sure you’ll be wise. Keep on doing the great work you had started. The neighborhood just got bigger, there’s nothing to panic about, don’t worry._
> 
> _Knowing you was one of the greatest experiences of my life. You truly did a number on me, Mr Parker. When you died, I swear to God, my heart stopped for a little time and that’s saying a lot for a guy who went through several cardiac arrests when he still had the arc reactor. Losing you might have been the toughest thing I went through. I wasn’t ready for it. You were just a kid, who only ever wanted to help. You have no idea how many times I’ve wished that it’d been me instead of you. You deserved a happy, long life and here I was, sitting on my ass, trying to understand that you were no more. Speaking of which: you’re such a little shit. I had to wipe my hands from your dust. Talk about traumatic!!_
> 
> _Telling stories about you countless of times made me realized how much I owed you. Your stubbornness and millions of questions have been an excellent training for me to deal with Morgan. Thank you for showing me how to handle a young kid who thinks they’re the best hero in town._
> 
> _Speaking of Morgan: she heard a lot about you. In her head, you’re the cool guy that Daddy used to work with. She thinks I’m the coolest, of course, but you’re close second to her eyes. I swear to God, if you make me look like a tool to her, I’ll come back to haunt you big time. Don’t screw me up. Take care of her. She’s gonna need a big brother to lead her through._
> 
> _Thank you kid, you’ve been the best._
> 
> _I love you 3000_
> 
> _Tony_

 

 


	2. The one when Peter babysat for the first time

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It wasn't really that Peter feared Morgan. She was small and she was four, for heaven's sake. But the idea of being in charge of Morgan Stark was enough to send poor Peter into anxious mode. Will Morgan actually like him?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This story wasn't meant to have more than one chapter at the beginning but then, I realised I really wanted to explore Peter and Morgan's relationship. The following chapters probably won't come regularly but I'll update as soon as I have a chapter ready.
> 
> My first language being French, I apologize for any mistake I could have done. Feel free to correct me, I'm not gonna be butthurt about it! 
> 
> You can find me on Twitter, on @FlickeringWords, if you want to discuss the story or anything, for all that matters. I'm a bit chatty so I enjoy any conversation ;)
> 
> Lots of love,  
> Navy Xx

His voice had never sounded so cold. With a dreadful pit in his stomach, Peter swallowed the apprehension stuck in his throat and nodded. This was stupid. His head hurt and she couldn’t see him anyway. His fingers were somewhat damp against his battered smartphone but still, he was clenching it so bad that he was sure he heard the screen’s crack expand a little more while he was chatting with Pepper. Or trying to, at least.

 

“Listen Peter, I wouldn’t have called you if I had a backup plan but I don’t. You’re the only one I could get for this.”

“I’m not sure I’m up for this, Mrs. Potts”, Peter tried to explain.

“I’m sure you are.”

“What about Mr. Rogers?”

“He was already almost 90 before but now he’s _literally_ 90 _._ I can’t ask him that. It’s nothing you can’t handle. Come on kid, I really need you.”

“But what if-”

“Peter, I trust you”, Pepper confessed. “You’re the only one I trust with this. I’m sure you’ll do great. And I’ll pay you.”

 

Peter almost gasped. He wasn’t expecting to hear this. Of all the things that Pepper could have left him to supervise, this was probably the biggest task of them all.

 

“What about Happy?”

“You’re really gonna make me call Happy when we both know he has a date tonight?” Pepper sighed.

 

Peter gulped down the ball of nerves. There was nothing he could do. Either he accepted the mission and was possibly in for becoming the biggest disappointment of Pepper Potts-Stark, or he could decline and become, _for sure,_ Pepper Potts-Stark’s biggest disappointment. There wasn’t really any win in this situation, right?

 

“Okay. I’ll do it”, Peter’s voice shook out a little.

“Thank God”, Pepper exclaimed. “How long will it be for you to be here?”

“If I take a car, maybe an hour?”

“And if you swing here?”

“Maybe thirty minutes”, he calculated.

“Well get your web shooters out, then.”

 

Peter nodded, then cursed himself silently again. Now that he had actually accepted, there was no backing out of it, right? It was too late to express once again that he really wasn’t confident in his abilities. It’s not like Pepper would have listened to him, anyway.

Sighing and moaning about how much of an imbecile he had been once again, Peter grabbed his jacket and threw it on his shoulders. He carefully put on the sleeves and grabbed the web shooters that laid in his desk drawers and slipped them past his wrists. He made sure that he had them on correctly and in the right way. He had learned the painful way that he really should check on them when he was distracted. Last time it happened, he shot himself in the face and faceplanted into lamppost. An old lady had come to check on Spider-Man and asked if he was okay. Peter had nodded, when really, his eyes were watering and he had had to explain to May why his nose was completely purple when he came back home that night. May laughed at him. There was nothing else she could have done, really, and he had spent his evening with a pack of frozen peas on his face. Imbecile.

Peter exhaled and tried to calm his nerves. When his hands stopped violently shaking but only had mild tremors, he threw a sweatshirt and a pair of jeans in a backpack, then he grabbed the pad that May had left on the console of the hallway and scribbled a quick note letting her know what he was up to. He didn’t fail to send her a quick text as well, saying that he was out and informing of where he was. In case one of them got lost in the way, at least, he left two messages.

Peter slipped out of the apartment and made his way to a corner of the block that he knew to be quite ignored. There was something about being a masked superhero that made him super aware of his surroundings. Call him paranoid but he wasn’t familiar with this block of Queens and the majority of his new neighbors. When half of the population vanished, suddenly, real estate lost a hella lot of interest. A lot of apartments had been left empty or populated by young kids who couldn’t fend for themselves. When May.. Peter gulped down again. He couldn’t believe that May had been one of them. He was fine having missed five years on this Earth, he had made sacrifices already and knew that there would be many to come again, but he sure as hell wasn’t fine with the fact that May had been affected. After what happened a couple of years ago, he didn’t want her to go through anything traumatic again. But there Thanos came and screwed everything up for her. May was a valuable asset in their community, so the fact that she got snapped away didn’t even make sense. She had nurse training, she kept working for charities, she always tried to make the most of everything she was able to get. Sure thing, she would have helped with all those kids who lost their parents in the Snap. But instead, she got taken away. When the Blip happened, May reappeared exactly where she had been five years before: in her kitchen, trying desperately to make whatever meal she was trying to make. Peter had stopped questioning what she was cooking a long time ago and knew the numbers of several delivering food places that they were able to order from by heart. So when May opened her oven that day, she was surprised she didn’t find the roast chicken she was cooking. And then she got attacked by a wooden spatula straight in the head. It had taken a few more hits for her to yell back that this was her place so she couldn’t rob it and the husband of the woman hitting her stopped her before they crashed on the couch Peter knew by heart, watching the news of half the population coming back to life.

May and Peter had moved out a few nights later. He was in no condition to deal with that before. May had been waiting for him there because it was the only logical place he could go to after this whole mess and they slept in a hotel down the street that night. They got lucky in the sense that those people had had the decency to store their stuff in a storage container, at a facility that opened specifically for this purpose. Apparently, half the population disappearing created businesses too. They weren’t the only ones who saved the previous owners’ stuff. Natasha Romanoff had been expressing the hopes of the whole Avengers team, saying that they would do whatever it’d take to bring everyone back. She urged people to save what could be saved, in the hope that people might need them when they’d come back. The family who had taken over Peter’s old place had heard her cry and had stored everything in a storage room. May cried when she went through some boxes filled with belongings that she hadn’t dared to look at in months- well, years now. Peter had taken a lot of those in his tiny bedroom and had tried to make it as easy for her as possible, but their new place sucked and there was so much he could do. His bedroom was so small that he barely fitted a desk in there and him and Ned had to build their Lego sets in the living room now. At least, Ned got his apartment back. No one had taken it in the five years so he just blipped back in it, easy peasy. But when Peter saw the look of the two small kids that shared his old bedroom, he couldn’t, for the life of God, tell May that he was okay with chasing them out. That bedroom had seen them grow and share the awfulness of what the Snap had left in its wake. They had felt safe in there, just like he had when May took him in after his parents passed away. It was unfair to make them go through something traumatic again. So he told May to drop it and they spent some time at a fellow Avenger’s place. Steve was really old now but at least he still had a place in New York. Coming back from his timeline had been a bit awkward at first. Doing the math, Peter had thought that Steve was now a hundred and five, but Steve assured him he was not. So the oldest had to explain that when Bruce thought he hadn’t brought him back, he actually had. Steve didn’t walk back to the bench where Sam found him after a lifetime full of love and happiness. He had actually come back when Bruce had pushed that button, making him ninety now. He was still living in his nice house in Brooklyn that he had bought with Peggy (making Peter swear that he would never tell anyone that he married her), but the house was now surrounded by buildings. Steve had showed him a picture of it before the block turned out to be what it was now. There was a park in front of it, where children had bike races and played ball. Now there was a row of buildings and only a narrow patch of green surrounding the house. Steve had refused to sell more of his own space to please those promoters. Now it looked like the old guy from Up’s house. Peter spending time with Steve had been beneficial though. Steve had two lives worth of stories to tell and wisdom to pass on to and Peter was in dire need of guidance. Now that Tony was gone, he had no idea how to be the superhero that the world needed him to be. So Steve helped as much as he was in the capacity to, but truth be told, he was ready to hang on the hero mantle. There wasn’t much that he said, only to trust his guts and to always, always try his best. So he focused on telling him stories of when he was younger and the world was getting ready to go to war. He taught him how to breathe when things got in the way, he taught him to focus on the good and he also taught him how to cook. That was maybe the most important thing he had taught him, to be fair.

The journey to the Potts-Stark cabin had been quite long. That was the con point of living so far away from the city. Swinging through buildings had been the usual masked experience but as Peter entered the forest where Tony had built their house, he started to feel his chest constricting and had yanked the mask away from his face. There was nobody in this forest anyway, Tony had made sure of it. The fresh air hitting his cheeks had helped a lot and when he finally landed near the house, he was feeling a lot better. He took a minute to change from his suit to his normal clothes and walked the few feet that were needed to land at the front door. There was an alpaca chewing some grass in the garden and Peter frowned at it. Was it already there when he came a few months ago? Shaking his head to get his ideas clear again, he climbed the few steps and knocked on the front door. At his surprise, the door opened on its own. Had Tony invented some kind of system to make it open on demand?

 

“Hi Peter”, a small voice greeted him.

 

Peter’s eyes fell lower, near the floor. Of course. Tony had created a way of opening a door and it had a name: Morgan. Peter tried to smile at her, he really did, but seeing Morgan’s head tilted on the side with a small frown, he guessed his smile had been more of a wince. And to see her like that really kind of broke his heart all over again. That was the face Tony used to make at him, when he’d finally do something productive in the workshop.

 

“Oh thank God”, Pepper breathed out in the background. “Come on in, Peter, make yourself at home”, she invited him inside as she was trying to push the lock on her earring. “I’m sorry to have put this on you at the last minute, if I had known before, I would have been able to at least ask you in advance”, she grimaced.

“It’s okay”, Peter tried to assure but his face said the exact opposite.

“Can you help me please?” she implored, struggling between her earring and the zip in the back of her dress.

“Sure.”

 

Peter had done this countless of times with May. He gently took the back of the earring and slid it perfectly. He wasn’t nervous for that; that he could manage. During that time, Morgan zipped her mother’s dress up.

 

“Okay, I’m sure Morgan will give you the grand tour”, Pepper stood back up then looked for her purse. “There’s food in the kitchen, use the microwave to reheat it. There’s some for you as well.”

“Right. Hmm, Miss Potts?”

“First of all, it’s Potts-Stark”, Pepper stopped in her tracks. “Second of all, to you, it’s Pepper.”

“Alright”, Peter swallowed. “Has the alpaca always been here or..?”

“Oh. Right. The alpaca. This was Tony’s.”

“Tony had.. Are you saying Tony had an alpaca?” Peter exclaimed.

“Dad named him Gerald!” Morgan provided.

“Oh my God”, Peter snorted.

“I know, I know”, Pepper cried out. “Tony was a dork like that.”

“He surely was!”

 

Peter shook his head again. Tony had a daughter.. and an alpaca. Nothing made sense anymore.

 

“So Morgan has to go to bed by 9pm top. No candy before bed. Make sure she brushes her teeth before.”

 

Peter nodded. So far, he could handle this.

 

“She’ll tell you what she needs, she’s a pretty open kid normally. I need to go if I want to be on time. Morgan, please, you listen to what Peter says, okay? He’s the grown up, if he tells you to do something, you obey, are we clear?”

 

Morgan nodded, grinning like a kid who knew they were gonna be a troublemaker but were playing nice to the adult in the room. She turned to Peter and smiled as well.

 

“Peter, you’re a lifesaver, I owe you one”, Pepper promised, grabbing the teenager in a quick hug before fleeing by the door but quickly coming back on her steps. “Morguna, you _don’t_ touch Daddy’s desk, do we understand each other?”

 

Morgan’s big smile fell down from her lips. She frowned like she had just been denied of the greatest fun of her life. She crossed her arms on her chest and her brows almost touched in the middle of her forehead.

 

“Be good with Peter, he’s nice, okay?”

“Okay”, she sighed.

“Love you three thousand”, Pepper whispered to her daughter before she slammed Peter’s cheek with a kiss and left the house.

“So you’re in charge?” Morgan asked.

“Uhm.. Yeah, apparently. I mean.. Sure”, Peter blushed.

 

Morgan considered the options she had. Peter saw the wheels turning in her little skull. Tony had the same look on his face whenever he considered doing crap like hacking the White House’s website or teaching Peter how to mess with a vending machine and make it give you anything you want for free. But before he could properly panic about it, Morgan’s small feet scrambled on the hardwood floor of the living room before she climbed the stairs to the first floor. Now, Peter could panic.

Hurrying behind her, he found himself into a corridor with multiple doors. One was open but by the look of the white tiles on the floor, it was the bathroom. Surely, there was a door at the end of the hall with a drawing on it. The paper pictured a little girl with brown hair, holding a bigger stick figure’s hand. The other hand of the big guy had so many fingers that Peter didn’t even try to count them but the blue circle in the middle of its palm was enough to recognize Tony. Surely that indicated that it was Morgan’s bedroom. Timidly, he knocked on the door but no sound came out.

 

“Morgan, can I come in?”

“No.”

 

That was unexpected. Peter had been there for barely ten minutes and he had already managed to screw this up. Way to go, Peter!! He could already feel the ants climbing up his fingers and starting to crawl underneath his skin. In a few minutes, his lungs would struggle to fill completely, he’d start seeing blurry and then he’d go full banshee. Remembering one of Steve’s lessons, he closed his eyes and pushed back the anxiety, just a little bit, only a couple of inches but enough to focus on his breathing. Slowly sliding his head down, he felt the wood of the white door in front of him on his forehead. It was cold, hard but he felt the veins in the wood. So Peter focused on that, on what he could feel, on what he could touch. The wood was smooth but it still was covered in little grooves, it had been painted but not sanded before. Tony and Pepper must have felt like it was a nice touch to their environment. The woods all around the house weren’t that dense but it was impressive how they managed to come from the Stark Tower to this cabin. Sure, the house wasn’t the typical cabin and it had nice touches of technology but it still felt more grounded than Tony ever was.

Before he could really realize it, the panic attack had been pushed away. Steve really had the best advices on this topic.

But it didn’t make Morgan come out of her bedroom. She was barely four, there was no chance Peter would let her alone in a room. Asgardian gods know what she could do in there and how she could harm herself. If she had even a scratch on her, Peter would never forgive himself. Pepper trusted him with her daughter, with Tony’s daughter. He couldn’t screw that up. He couldn’t disappoint. So Peter did the only thing he thought of in this moment. He tried to connect. Sitting on the floor in front of the door, he took a big breath before his voice started to try and come through the door.

 

“Hey Morgan, you know, I knew your dad quite well”, he breathed out. “We spent a lot of time together, in his workshop.”

“I know”, the tiny voice pronounced, audible sadness peeking through.

“One day, I was in his workshop and we were trying to update one of his suits. He had those bots, I don’t know if he told you about them. One of them was called Dum-E and its name suited so well, it was a very dumb bot. So, basically, he asked Dum-E to pass him a tool and Dum-E, well.. It slammed into a desk, full force. The tool went flying in the air and I tried to grab it so it didn’t break anything but in doing so, I ended up slamming into your dad and we both went flying through the workshop, ending up in a wall. By doing so, I had knocked over a shelf, where there was a couple of prizes and awards. Your dad ended up with a cup on his head, just like a hat”, Peter laughed a little.

 

The squeaking noise of the door was very faint but Peter’s ears heard it loud and clear. First, all that was visible was a toe but soon enough, Morgan’s shy little round face appeared between the wall and the wooden panel.

 

“You know Dum-E?” she timidly asked.

“Of course, I know Dum-E”, Peter smiled weakly. “That was a nice bot.”

“It’s a funny bot”, she agreed.

“Wait.. You still have Dum-E?!”

“Dad said I’m not allowed to see it on my own.. The garage is a mess and Dum-E could hurt me without wanting to.”

 

Those eyes. Morgan had those big brown round eyes, that sparkled like the puss in boots’ in the Shrek movie. She knew what she was doing, if he trusted the tiny smirk on her lips but there was no way Peter could resist it. Rocking forward, he put his elbows on his knees and murmured “Do you wanna go see Dum-E?”. The shriek that left Morgan’s mouth was enough to make his smile for real. She grabbed on his hands and pulled him up before dragging him to the garage. The door was locked by a fingerprint scanner and Morgan couldn’t unlock it anymore. After she sneaked into the garage and took her mother’s suit’s helmet, Tony had reinstated certain security controls into the protocols. Morgan frowned when the little light turned red as she pressed her hand to the scanner. She tried again, and again, and on the third try, F.R.I.D.A.Y. actually came to the rescue.

 

“Hello, Little Stark”, the IA greeted. “I’m afraid you’re not allowed in this room anymore.”

“Why?” she cried out.

“Because you have a tendency of stealing your father’s stuff, Morgan. Would you like to hear it from him?”

“What?” Peter choked up.

“Good evening Mr Parker. Tony recorded a lot of messages to explain some things to Morgan. Here’s the one I was talking about.”

 

And sure enough, Tony’s voice boomed out through the speakers of the house, tearing up Peter’s heart in half and leaving him breathless. Tony had passed only a couple of months ago, he was still grieving and he wasn’t sure he would ever totally grieve him, to be completely honest. There was a lot of things he wished he could have done with Tony and that he realized he would never do. But to hear him that way really made things even worse for him. He wished he could have seen Tony with Morgan. There was no doubt that they spent their time together, that Morgan had him wrapped around her little finger, that there was nothing he could deny her.

 

“Hey kiddo”, Tony’s electronic voice seeped through the speakers. “You’re not allowed in there. You stole Mom’s helmet, you broke an awful lot of my stuff and you already have plenty of toys in your room. You’ll be allowed to come back in when you’ll be older, but as of right now, you can’t! Love you tons, Morguna.”

 

Morgan crossed her arms back on her chest and sat on the floor, pouting. She really wanted to see Dum-E, Peter realized. As disappointed as she was, there was probably little chances that she would move from this spot anytime soon. So Peter sat next to her, apologizing quietly. Morgan turned her head to the side, so she wouldn’t see him anymore. Peter’s stomach dropped to his feet. He really wanted Morgan to like him and now he had angered her. He offered a truce when he came back from the kitchen with a cookie that she accepted before she jumped at his neck. Surprised, Peter accepted the hug, enjoying the strawberry smell of her hair and the gross feeling of her sticky fingers on his neck. Morgan was a cute kid who just had a traumatic event happened to her. Of course, she would be a little tough to deal with but Peter really wanted to bond with her. Tony would have liked that, he thought. Standing up with Morgan attached to his hip, he enjoyed the cuddle to the last bit, trying to memorize small details that he would recognize later. This was part of bonding, right?

But before he could comprehend what was happening, Morgan chubby tiny fingers had grasped his own hand and slammed it on the screen panel to unlock the door.

The little LED light turned green and the door slid open. Morgan wriggled down as the screen greeted him with a nice “Hello Pete!” that made him smile. His old mentor really had left him in the security protocols, trying to grasp at every crumb of him he had left. However, the littlest Stark was hurtling down the stairs, happily skipping the last step before she made a beeline to Dum-E that she rounded with her short arms.

 

“Morgan, wait!”

 

Too late. She had got the bot and the damn thing was happily chirping and whirring, almost like an electronical purr. Morgan’s head went to the claw and Peter almost fainted when he saw Dum-E opened it to grab her. Morgan was gonna get hurt!

Reacting on an instinct, Peter shot a web to the bot and missed it by an inch. He was already trying to come up with a strong apology to Pepper for having let Morgan get hurt when Dum-E’s open claw just awkwardly patted Morgan’s head with a softness that he didn’t know the bot to have.

 

“Good bot”, Morgan smiled.

“Yeah, good bot, Dum-E”, Peter sighed with extreme relief. “Okay, Dum-E, it was very nice to see you, but I think it’s time we got back upstairs. Right, Morgan?”

“Will you play with me?”

“Sure”, Peter breathed out.

 

Peter could play. Of course, he could. He’d be ecstatic to play. Anything but staying here, waiting for a catastrophe to happen. And he was surprised to feel Morgan’s sticky hand slip into his, dragging him back to the living room, then on the first floor to her bedroom. Morgan’s room was nice, there wasn’t a lot of decoration to it but the wall opposed to her bed was covered in drawings, taped messily to the wood and almost taking the entire space. There were still a couple of open spots, which is why she grabbed her bag full of crayons and asked Peter to go back to the living room. Swooping the kid in his arm, Peter took a second to observe the drawings on the wall. The majority of them were of houses, sun with rays so big the touched the green grass; stick figures with too many fingers to count but smile that took all of their faces. First, they were potato people, with only a head and arms, but soon they turned into snowmen, with two parts to separate the body from the face. They had grown feet as well! There were a couple of drawings that made Peter smile: one had a potato girl on the left while there was a guy with a red, white and blue starry plate on the right. Obviously, Morgan didn’t draw the Captain America guy but by the writing announcing “STEVE” underneath it, he knew that Tony did. There was another one where Potato Morgan was surrounded by a woman all in black with sticks in her hands, another one with a shaved head and a spike and another one with short blonde hair and blue sparkles coming from her. The writing said “Aunt Nat”, “Okoye” and “Aunt Carol” but the letters were Pepper’s. Morgan had always been surrounded by strong women, Peter realised. He was glad she had a great example of what women could be.

The table in the living room was big enough for them to settle there. Morgan’s tiny feet tapped like a nice music as she skipped to her mother’s studyroom to grab paper. When she come back with a little stack of sheets and slid one in front of Peter, the teenager smiled so big he swore he had cramps in his cheeks afterwards.

 

“What do you want to draw?” Morgan asked, as she was already searching for a red crayon in her pencil case.

“I don’t know. Is there something you’d like me to draw for you?” he proposed, twirling a green crayon between his fingers.

“I already have a Hulk one”, she said, pushing the crayon out of his hand. “I have both Captains, and Aunt Nat, and also one of Thor and Rocket”, she explained.

“What hero would you like to your collection, then?”

“I don’t know”, Morgan’s shy little voice came back.

 

It was funny how bossy she could be one minute and then act like she wanted to hide the next. Peter let her to her drawing and started to draw a picture of New York City’s skyline, with all the different buildings and the Empire State and the One World Trade Center. He was trying to come up with a recognizable Lady Liberty when Morgan slid her paper in front of him, above his own drawing.

 

“I can’t draw the spider”, she said.

 

Spider-Man looked an awful lot like a potato but at least, he was red and blue. He wasn’t quite sure that the proportions and design of his suit were accurate (they definitely weren’t) but he was so flattered that she was trying to draw him that his eyes welled up a little.

 

“Can you draw the spider, please?”

“Sure”, he spoke up in a wobbly voice.

“Use the black pen!” she smiled, making it roll to him.

 

A black small circle appeared on the chest of Spider-Potato, surrounded by eight little rays, four on each side. It looked like a black miniature sun, so Peter tried to make it more Spider-y by adding another minuscule circle on top of its body. There. Almost like the one on his chest, right?

 

“I love it”, Morgan smiled, grabbing the drawing before she pushed it aside and took another sheet of paper to draw another potato, he guessed.

 

When she was done, Peter had reheated their meal and he was trying to make her come to the kitchen so they could have dinner together but Morgan wasn’t completely finished and she needed help and she certainly wouldn’t budge from her seat until Peter provided.

 

“I don’t know how to write your name!” she pouted, pushing back all of her crayons in frustration and furrowing her brows.

“Want me to write it for you?” Peter offered.

“NO!” she screamed. “I wanna write it myself! And I don’t want you to see it before it’s done”, she explained, hiding her drawing beneath her stomach as she had planted herself on the table.

“How do you wanna do this, then?”

 

Morgan frowned a little more. Usually, her mom would grab the crayon and write it for her, but this drawing wasn’t like the others and she wanted to write it herself. She wasn’t really used to being offered the choice on such silly insignificant things, Peter realized, so he let her think about it for a little while.

 

“Want to think about it while having dinner?” Peter tried to coax her into coming to the kitchen.

 

Morgan nodded and followed him pretty quickly. While eating, Morgan didn’t speak much. She looked pretty torn concerning that writing issue she had. Peter could see the wheels turning in her little brain, trying to come up with a solution that wouldn’t make her look like she didn’t know how to write yet. As soon as her apple (that Peter had sliced for her) was finished, she ran back to her drawing, dragging Peter with her. She sat in front of her sheet of paper for several minutes before she scooted down her chair to climb on Peter’s lap. She turned her drawing upside down so he couldn’t see it and took another blank sheet.

 

“Write your name on this”, she demanded.

“Okay. Which name do you want?”

“ _Your_ name”, she frowned.

 

He had no idea what she meant, so he just scribbled down “Spider-Man” and “Peter” underneath it. When she was sure that he was done, she slid back on the floor and took her drawing, before scurrying away so he wouldn’t see it. She came back a few minutes later with an envelope that she gave him very formally, like a little postwoman would.

 

“Don’t open it!” she yelled as his index finger was about to open it. “You’ll open it when you’ll be back at your home, okay?”

“Sure”, Peter smiled. Progress.

 

The rest of the evening was pretty uneventful. They played a bit, having a tea party with Morgan’s dolls and teddy bears and at eight and a half, Peter made Morgan a small bubble bath. He allowed her to be alone in the bathroom for a minute, so she could undress and slid into the water and when he came back into the room, he was relieved to see that Morgan had been pretty good to not do anything silly. She sat there in the warm water waiting for him to help her out and he happily did so, sitting next to the bathtub and taking the shower head to damp her hair and lathering her hair with strawberry shampoo. She was playing with a little plastic boat while he was massaging her scalp. He scooped a handful of foam and dropped it on her head before she made him a beard with the bubbles. They both looked silly and Peter decided that it would be a nice selfie to send to Pepper to assure her that they were both okay. He snapped the picture pretty quickly, Morgan asking him to stick out his tongue while she did the same. He assured himself that Morgan was well covered in bubbles on the picture and sent it out to her mother before putting his phone away from the water. Grabbing a cup that laid there in the bath toys box, he took extra care to rinse out the foam from her head and not put any soap in her eyes. His right hand was pouring water, his left was acting as a little dam to prevent the water to slip to her face. Morgan was pretty calm, he enjoyed this short moment with her. Then he allowed her to turn the faucet open. While the bathtub was being drained, he grabbed a towel and stood there, his eyes closed, waiting for Morgan to get into the open towel he was holding out for her. When he felt her crash to his chest, he wrapped each end around her and open his eyes again, meeting Morgan’s amused one. She used a corner of her towel to wipe his chin of the foam she had put there, laughing while doing so.

He wasn’t sure whether Morgan was pretty light or if it was his super strength but carrying Morgan to her bed was easier than he ever thought it’d be. Wrapped into the towel like a little sushi on her bed, she waited for him to grab her pajamas and when everything was laid out for her, he slipped out of the bedroom waiting for her in the bathroom again. He made sure the bathtub was cleaned out of any foam and he mopped the floor of any water that could have been splashed around. Morgan joined him a few minutes later, dressed in her pajamas and he held her beneath her arms so she could grab her toothbrush and her toothpaste. He did it again when it was the moment to spit the toothpaste in the sink, leaving her giggling. Then she skipped to bed like a happy kid, as he held the covers for her to slip into. He sat on the end of her bed, while she was getting comfortable.

 

“Are you gonna tell Mom that we went to see Dum-E?”

“Do you want me to?” Peter asked.

“Not really.. Dad said I wasn’t allowed to”, Morgan bit her lower lip, knowing perfectly well she had done something she wasn’t supposed to.

“Maybe we could keep this between us, then”, Peter offered.

“That’d be great”, Morgan smiled. “Can you tell me a story?”

“Which story would you like to hear?”

“Do you have one with my dad?”

“I have tons”, Peter grinned.

 

When Pepper came back home that night, the house was oddly silent. She half expected Morgan to still be up but the lights were off in the living room and the only source of light she could find was from the first floor, from Morgan’s bedroom. She tiptoed there and found Morgan fast asleep in her bed, Peter sitting next to her, his left arm around her as he was sleeping next to her. His legs were still out of the bed but Morgan was holding onto him like a teddy bear. Smiling, Pepper snapped a picture and gently got his legs into the bed. She turned the bedside light off and went back downstairs. She quickly called May, reassuring her that Peter was still at there but that he was asleep and she was happy to let him sleep there. She sent out the picture she had just taken to May, receiving a bunch of emojis in return that made her smile even more.

Peter came back home in a car the morning after. Happy was there to pick him up, because May didn’t want him to swing back to the city. They all had breakfast while Morgan was still asleep and Peter left not so long after, but making sure he had kissed sleepy Morgan goodbye before. During the ride back to Queens, Peter dug into his backpack where Pepper had told him she had packed Morgan’s envelope. The envelope was now sealed so he tore it open, taking the drawing out. As he was unfolding it, he noticed two smaller pieces stuck in between the folds, glassy paper picturing him covered in bubbles with Morgan and another one of him sleeping next to her. Peter smiled, remembering how anxious he had been to babysit Morgan. There was nothing to be afraid of, now that he thought of it. Morgan was a nice kid. The drawing was enough to convince him that this wasn’t the last time he’d agree to watch over her, even if he hadn’t really been asked to.

On the paper, two potatoes were holding each other’s hand. One was a bit taller than the other. One had a nice “MOЯGAN” scribbled on top, the R looking a bit funny as it was facing the O before, and the other potato had been branded “PETEЯ”. Between the two names, a nice red heart had been drawn.

 

MOЯGAN ♥ PETEЯ

 

And Peter definitely ♥ Morgan too.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'd really appreciate any feedback on this, I'm constantly trying to perfect my writing and my stories so having your feelings and reactions is really hella helpful!   
> Feel free to also drop blurbs or suggestions for following chapters! I'd be happy to consider any idea to satisfy your needs of fluff! ;) Xx


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